Jefferson Thomas

Jefferson Thomas, who died on September 5 aged 67, figured in one of American
history's most infamous acts of racial politics when he became one of nine
black students to test a new ruling outlawing racial segregation in schools.

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White students jeer a lone black student during the Little Rock showdownPhoto: Bettmann/Corbis

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Thomas with his father, Ellis Thomas, in 1958Photo: Bettmann/Corbis

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Thomas (centre) and Elizabeth Eckford during the lunch period at Central High, Little Rock, on October 10 1957Photo: Bettmann/Corbis

5:43PM BST 07 Sep 2010

In 1954 the US Supreme Court had ordered that such segregation in American public schools was illegal. Many school districts in the South defied the ruling, leading to lawsuits and violent enforcement.

Three years later, in September 1957, the arrival of the so-called Little Rock Nine at the gates of the all-white Central High School, Little Rock, the biggest public high school in the state of Arkansas with 1,780 pupils, tested the federal government's resolve to enforce the order.

The showdown that followed shocked America. After the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, sent in the National Guard, armed with rifles and bayonets, to prevent Thomas and his eight fellow students from entering the school, President Dwight Eisenhower ordered up the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army.

The nine were caught in a mob of angry white protesters, spitting and throwing stones. Troops manned the school hallways to enforce the court ruling and escorted each of the nine black students – two soldiers assigned to each – as they made their way from classroom to classroom.

Americans watched events unfolding on live television in what one historian identified as the "first on-site news extravaganza of the modern television era". What they saw was a disturbing eruption of American race conflict.

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Although the city's schools were segregated, the different areas of Little Rock had not been, and before the conflict over integration black children often practised football at weekends with white students from Central High.

Thomas, then 15, lived a mile from Central High and three miles from an all-black high school when he volunteered to help demolish the colour barrier at Central. Although more than 100 black students volunteered, the list was shortened by officials. Only nine turned up at the school on September 4 1957, but the Arkansas National Guard blocked their path. They entered successfully on September 25, escorted by troops of the 101st Airborne.

In 1999, shortly after the 40th anniversary of their enrolment, each of the Little Rock Nine received Congressional Gold Medals from President Clinton.

Jefferson Allison Thomas, the youngest of seven children, was born on September 19 1942 in Little Rock. He was keen to attend Central High because he wanted a better education than the one available at the local all-black school, which had second-rate facilities and hand-me-down equipment. Central, by contrast, had science laboratories, modern textbooks and an impressive record of college placements.

When the crack troops of the 101st Airborne Division, known as the Screaming Eagles, withdrew from the school after a fortnight, Jeff Thomas and the other eight were subjected to daily violence. Tacks were left on his chair, broken glass on the floor. On one occasion, he was kicked unconscious. Other black students had acid thrown in their eyes and were beaten with tennis racquets.

Although Governor Faubus closed all the high schools in Little Rock a year later, in a last-ditch effort to prevent blacks and whites from attending school together. Thomas continued his education by taking correspondence courses and attending classes at a local black community college. After the so-called "lost year" Central reopened and Thomas resumed his studies there.

He was short for his age, and managed to duck away from white school bullies at Central High. When he reached his senior year, white boys tempted him to retaliate to their taunts; this would have meant Thomas's expulsion and victory for the segregationists.

Of the Little Rock Nine, he was one of only three to graduate from Central High, after which he served as a sergeant in the US Army in Vietnam (he always maintained that school had been scarier). He earned a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Los Angeles State College, opened a record store and worked in a credit bureau. In 1979 he became a financial specialist with the US Defence Finance and Accounting Service in Los Angeles. In 1990 he transferred to Columbus, Ohio, retiring in 2004.

Thomas said his role in the integration of Central High "destroyed the family base," and recalled that his father had been sacked from his sales job because of the controversy. Callers threatened Jefferson Thomas, friends cut him dead and strangers threw missiles at his house. Thomas senior scraped by as a handyman and, the day after his son's graduation, moved the family to California.

Jefferson Thomas's first marriage ended in divorce. His second wife, Mary, whom he married in 1998, survives him with a son from his first marriage.